A/N: Okay, so I try not to write so many fanfics at one time (three
YYH alone right now!). But work has been incredibly boring lately, with
the result that I have dedicated this, my first full length
Kurama/Yusuke fic, to being scribbled down in between calls to
entertain myself. The time between updates will be entirely dependant
on how slow work is. I'm really fond of this story and I hope you all
enjoy it even though it's not my usual pairing.

Chapter One: Warning

Thud.
Thud. Thud.

The
sound of Yusuke Urameshi's head rhythmically hitting the wall. Atsuko
turned up the television to compensate and called in irritation to
her son to be quieter. So Yusuke moved into his room and over to the
corner farthest from the living room, and continued to bang his head,
slowly, against whatever was handy.

Stupid.
Stupid, stupid Yusuke. But then, when had he ever shown a history of
intelligence?

Yusuke
flopped down on his bed and tried to reason with himself. Okay. So
you've kissed a guy. No big deal.

You've
kissed one of your best friends. Slightly bigger deal, but we're
still within the realm of not freaking out, right? It was only in
play, after all.

The
first time, at least...

Thud.

--------------------------

"Oy!
Shuichi!"

Yusuke
nearly laughed out loud at the look of relief on Kurama's face when
he looked up and saw Yusuke waiting. He did allow himself to grin as
he watched his teammate trying to extricate himself from the crowd of
people he was sitting with. It never failed. Whenever Kurama attended
any academic institution, he wound up with a devoted knot of
admirers. Yusuke had watched it happen in his junior high, and high
school, and the first college he had attended; now Kurama had
transferred into a more prestigious university far enough away from
his home that he'd had to rent an apartment in the city, and from the
looks of things nothing was any different here. Yusuke was glad he'd
volunteered to come pick Kurama up on his first day of class--the fox
might not have been able to escape if it wasn't clear he had a ride
waiting.

Kurama
hurried down the path. As soon as he was in earshot he said, softly
and a little pleadingly, "Yusuke, will you pretend to be my
boyfriend?"

"Oh,
come on, Kurama. If you were my boyfriend, I wouldn't kiss you like
that."

Green
eyes sparkled with mischief. "Oh? And just how would you kiss
me, Yusuke?"

Never
one to back down from a challenge--particularly one that included
kissing a good looking redhead--Yusuke grabbed Kurama by the back of
his neck, right where his scruff would have been if he were in fox
form, and drew him closer. "Like this."

In
retrospect Yusuke would never know how he got the nerve to grab and
kiss Kurama like that. He was Yusuke Urameshi, fighter and street
punk extraordinaire, but kissing? Not his strong suit. So of course
he chose to lay one on Kurama, who as Youko was renowned almost as
much as a lover as he was as a thief. Stupid, stupid Yusuke.

But
hell, he was always doing stupid things, and the only way to make
them less stupid was to follow through on them. So pretending utter
confidence, he pulled the redhead close and laid his lips firmly on
Kurama's.

He
then surprised the hell out of himself by frenching him.

Kurama
surprised the hell out of him by letting him.

No--not
letting him. Letting implied that Kurama was not an active
participant in the kiss. Instead, Yusuke suddenly found his tongue
engaged in a battle for dominance with Kurama's. As previously
mentioned Yusuke was not one to back down from a challenge. What
began as a bluff was quickly turning into a... what?

Yusuke
didn't know. He wasn't thinking. His body was taking over and telling
him what to do--snake his hand into Kurama's hair, use it to tilt his
head to the side so you can kiss him deeper, taste his mouth and his
tongue, pull him closer...

Wham.
Reality. Yusuke kept his hand on the back of Kurama's head for
effect, but he did pull back. "Think that'll convince them?"
he panted.

Kurama
gave a small shrug, sneaking a glance at the group he had been
sitting with. "Should have."

"Well,
just to be sure." Recklessly Yusuke leaned in and kissed Kurama
again. He couldn't help himself. He had tasted something he never had
before, something that left him tingly and intrigued and keen to
explore more of it. He thought he could feel Kurama smiling around
the second kiss--was he pleased, or amused?

Yusuke
drew back, dropping the hand that had gotten entangled in Kurama's
hair. "There. That should do it."

"It
certainly should," Kurama replied, taking his helmet and
fastening it as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

Which
in a sense, it hadn't. One of them had asked the other to do
something, and the other had done it without questions or hesitation.
Simple enough, and it happened most every day. But what Kurama had
asked--

He
didn't ask you to kiss him, you moron!
Yusuke berated himself. He only asked you to pretend to be
with him so he could avoid attention. Yusuke
was the one who had taken it so far.

Yusuke
was the one who was suffering the consequences.

He
climbed onto the motorcycle and stiffened slightly when Kurama, in
climbing on behind him, wrapped his arms around Yusuke's waist.
"Sorry," Kurama murmured in his ear. "Just keeping in
character."

"Cool,"
Yusuke managed to say. He kicked the motorcycle into life and pulled
away, leaving a small crowd of disappointed spectators behind them.

As
soon as they were out of sight, Kurama removed his arms and Yusuke
found he could breathe again. "So, what are you doing with the
rest of the afternoon?" he asked.

"Mm...
nothing, yet. First day of class so there's no homework. Why, can I
do something for you?"

"I
have a ridiculous amount of energy," in no small part
inspired by kissing you, "and nothing to do with it."

He
could hear in Kurama's tone when he answered that he was smiling.
"You know where to go, then."

Yusuke
also smiled, and happily turned the motorcycle away from home and
towards The Wood.

It
wasn't really a wood, more like a couple of blocks of undeveloped,
overgrown land, but The Wood was what they called it. They had
discovered it on one of their romps through the city together, with
the trees growing high around it, and soon with a little help from
Kurama they had grown higher and started giving off a vague sense of
foreboding to humans, virtually guaranteeing their privacy. Yusuke
came here frequently, sometimes Kurama or occasionally Kuwabara but
sometimes by himself, at night, just for the sheer beauty and
solitude of the place. It's primary use, however, was what they came
there for now: a safe place to let their demon powers play.

Soon
two blurs were shooting through the grass, one red and one brown, and
laughter and oaths were on the air. They were very evenly matched and
sometimes the sparring matches would run for hours, neither able to
gain the upper hand, until they both laughingly gave up. Other times
the victories would be swift and varied between them, and each had
long since lost any reservations about conceding to the other. Today
proved to be a day of shorter matches. Yusuke was distracted--why the
hell had he kissed Kurama anyway? Well, why the hell shouldn't
he?--and Kurama won three fights within an hour. Disappointed, he
told Yusuke he wouldn't play any longer unless Yusuke would provide
him with a challenge.

The
comment stirred Yusuke's resentment, as Kurama had meant it to.
Unfortunately for Yusuke Kurama was already ready for the increase in
his concentration and ability, and the next round didn't go so easy.
Kurama took to the trees, laughing at Yusuke's inability to pursue
him; Yusuke gritted his teeth and leapt after him with an admitted
lack of grace. Kurama did not grow careless, so Yusuke knew it was
his own prowess when he finally managed to guess the fox's next leap
and smash into him, throwing them both to the ground.

They
tumbled over each other a few times, but Yusuke was very adept at
pins and was already working; when they came to a stop it was Yusuke
straddling Kurama's waist, the fox's hands securely pinned above his
head. Kurama lay still, his chest heaving slightly and his breath
stirring Yusuke's bangs. His hair had come loose while they fell and
it was tangled in the grass, red on green, green as the eyes
regarding him curiously...

"Yusuke?"

Yusuke
realized he had been holding Kurama still, staring at him, for close
on to a minute. "What?"

"I
think you won."

I
think I'm loosing it.

Yusuke
nodded, but did not move. After regarding him curiously for a few
moments, Kurama tentatively tried to shift his legs out from under
Yusuke, then tried to release his hands. Yusuke resisted him on both
counts. Kurama looked at him. "You know I can escape if I want
to." Yusuke nodded. "And you know I've conceded."
Yusuke nodded again. "So... what are you waiting for?"

Yusuke
didn't answer, because he couldn't. Kurama shifted again and Yusuke
pinned him down harder. Kurama looked at him with bewilderment.

"What
do you think of your new classmates?" Yusuke asked suddenly.

"I
don't know them well yet, but they seem pleasant enough. Why do you
ask?" Kurama asked calmly.

"Are
you interested in any of them?"

"Yusuke,
I don't know them. And besides, you know how I feel about dating
humans."

Yusuke
nodded. He knew exactly how Kurama felt about dating humans, because
after breaking up with Keiko he had begun to feel the same way. They
had even discussed it before. "So, if you know the answer, why
did you ask?"

Yusuke
shook his head. "I don't know."

They
stared at each other for another moment. Kurama shifted again,
perhaps trying to afford himself more comfort, and Yusuke found his
hands contracting and pressing down on Kurama's wrists with an iron
grip. At the same time, a wave of excitement rolled through his body.

Now
Kurama was frowning at him. Probably trying to figure out what was
going on inside that notoriously thick skull--well, Yusuke didn't
know either. He just knew that he was waiting for something, and he
wasn't going to let Kurama go until it happened.

Kurama
cocked his head to the side in befuddlement. The angle of his head
made his lips very inviting. Slowly Yusuke lowered his mouth--

--and
stopped centimeters away. There was something wrong. Kurama's eyes
had not gone cold, nor had be moved, but there was something,
something that Yusuke felt he would ignore at his own peril. Some
kind of warning.

He
hovered for a moment, feeling Kurama's breath on his lips, too close
to even make eye contact. Then he pulled back. He studied Kurama for
a moment, trying to conceptualize what had just happened, and found
Kurama's eyes unusually grave and just a bit bewildered.

Even
then it took Yusuke a moment to release him. Part of him was glad he
had not kissed the owner of such grave eyes, but another part of him
was seized with inexplicable want from looking at them. The only time
Yusuke had ever seen Kurama's eyes like that before was on the roof
of the hospital when his mother lay dying.

And
that thought, more than anything, caused Yusuke to release Kurama's
wrists and stand up, automatically pulling Kurama to his feet as
well. Kurama dusted himself off. "Do you have to be at the ramen
shop, Yusuke?" His tone was normal, but Yusuke felt it
again--the warning.

"Yeah.
Yeah, I do. I'll take you home first."

"I
wouldn't want to make you late."

"You
live close enough."

They
didn't speak much on the ride home. And when Yusuke pulled over it
seemed to him that Kurama left quicker than usual, with only a casual
"Goodbye, Yusuke," thrown over his shoulder.

Well,
of course the guy's quick to leave. You pinned him down and wouldn't
let him up and didn't explain why.
And yet, hadn't Kurama said, You know I can escape if I
want to. And he hadn't.

But
there had been a warning. Yusuke wasn't even sure Kurama had been its
origin, but it had been there.

Kurama
would have been justified in warning him, Yusuke realized. Kurama had
asked Yusuke to help him out of an awkward situation, and in response
Yusuke had stuck his tongue down his throat and then subjected him to
a long, completely unnecessary, awkward moment. Reflecting on the
series of oddities the afternoon had held, Yusuke decided there was a
serious possibility he had just screwed up their friendship.

Yusuke
drove home--for he had lied to Kurama, he did not have to go to work
that day--and went up the stairs, and slowly started to beat his head
against the wall.

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